Australia’s largest retailer moves to Hybrid Clouds

This week, we announced that Woolworths, Australia’s largest retailer, has selected Dell Technologies Cloud to help provide consistent, exceptional customer and team experience across its 3,000 retail outlets.

As one of Australia and New Zealand’s most innovative retailers, Woolworths needs:

  • guaranteed systems availability and near real-time data integration
  • the above capabilities to be mobilised throughout offices, stores and distribution centres
  • the capacity to effectively perform operations 24 hours, 7 days a week
  • the ability to scale applications to meet spikes in demand capacity caused by unforeseen events like COVID-19

When speaking with Woolworths Group, CIO John Hunt said of Woolworths’ move to a Dell Technologies hybrid cloud strategy, “With a presence in more than 1,000 communities across Australia and New Zealand, we have a vital role to play in meeting the essential needs of tens of millions of customers every week. To help us better manage this task, we’re working with Dell Technologies to launch Woolworths Group Hosting Service, which marries our public and private clouds into one seamless system.”

Through the Dell Technologies Cloud, Woolworths manages many of its mission-critical processes and applications, from the distribution of goods via its Blue Yonder Warehouse and Transport Management applications, and HR and payroll management for 215,000 team members via the Kronos Workforce application.

Dell Technologies Cloud brings the benefits of public cloud to the data centre and the power of the data centre to the public cloud. With a consistent operating environment across public and private clouds, Woolworths can eliminate the silos and complexity that multiple clouds create. The private cloud, housed across two data centre facilities in Sydney, is managed by Dell Technologies. By adopting Dell Technologies On Demand, Woolworth acquires on-premises IT with an as-a-Service consumption model. With a better understanding of capital and operating expenses, the retailer can better plan future budget requirements.

The retail industry is going through a seismic shift thanks to advanced technologies. Consumers expect their shopping experience to be seamless and consistent, whether it’s online or in the store. With Dell Technologies Cloud as the foundation of its hybrid cloud model, Woolworths has a reliable managed approach for their supply chain, logistics, warehouse management and other mission-critical applications.

You can read more on this story here in the Australian Financial Review (please note this content in behind a paywall).

About the Author: Angela Fox